2016! Week 3

 Miles finished my Kolob sign that he gave me for Christmas.  I love it!  It gives us lots of opportunity to talk about why our house is named this.  

I hope our actions can live up to this name as well!

My mom loves pink flamingo's and wants one for her front porch.  I found this giant one at Hobby Lobby.  It's way to big for a porch but it reminded me of my mom.

Melinda and I went to Gygi's to get a tie cookie cutter and we ended up getting a few more things.  Man I love this store.  I want one of everything they sell- ha ha.  

These A'Peels will make some yummy caramel apples. 

 A few more things I couldn't live without.

Afterward we went to lunch.  Brooklyn is my favorite lunch date:).  The other day she overheard my mom on the phone telling someone that she was meeting a friend for lunch that day.  Brooklyn said "Grandma my name is Brooklyn and I'm your best friend!"  

It was hilarious that she thought my mom was talking about her.

On the way home we stopped at the DMV so I could get some drivers guides for Ashtyn.  She gets her learners permit this year- but there is a 50 question test she has to pass so I want her to be prepared.  To think of her driving makes me so happy and so nervous.  It will be nice to have a third driver in the family, but the roads are so busy where we live that I will probably freak out every time she does drive- especially this first year when I have to be in the car with her. 

We all decided to give Sharon a picture blanket for her birthday.  It was fun to put it together and see all of the memories we have made over the years.  I hope she likes it!

 Brigit and I drove down to Spanish Fork to spend time with Lela.  We took her to lunch and the Seagull Book- her favorite store.  I love her so much and it makes me sad that she 

lives so far away.  We had a great time!

I convinced my mom to sign up for an LDSSingles online dating account.  This is the picture she chose for her profile.  Wouldn't you want to date a hot babe like this!  She has become a little obsessed with it and calls me at all hours when she thinks of additional things she wants to add to her profile.  I don't know if anything will come of this but I 

think it will be fun for her to go out and meet some new people.

 Our Relief Society held their annual Winter Brunch this week.  It was a Favorite Things party.  We each brought one thing we love and we had a gift exchange.  The woman above told us about these awesome clear belts that have a flat buckle so you can't see them under your shirts.  She got the company to give her this promo code so we can save if we buy one.  I might have to look into one- none of my pants ever stay up.

Someone brought Micellar Water.  I have been wanting to try this forever so I ran and got some after the party.  It was only $7 for this bottle and you don't use a lot. 

 I am already in love with it.  It takes makeup off so easily. 

I brought my favorite glass bottle that I use to make my own salad dressings in and a mixer bottle for taking salad on the go.  The gift I got was the game Farkle.  

It's one of our family favorites and I love this convenient travel case.

We held our Priesthood Preview this week.  I was in charge of the invitations, programs and treat.  I made necktie sugar cookies.  I forgot to take a picture and they were gone in three minutes so I guess they tasted good- even if they did look like a five year old iced them.  My hand is so shaky these days so I think my cake decorating days might be over.  It probably helped too that the young boy who said the closing prayer prayed that the treat would taste good- ha ha.  It was a fun program.  

Ethan got to go because he will be 12 this year.  We are the only church today that has the priesthood authority and I love that we do because it has blessed my life tremendously.  

I hope I can raise Ethan to always be worthy of this power and responsibility.

2016! Week 2

We held our Baptism Preview this week.  I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and compared it to a crank flashlight.  It only works if you put in the effort to turn it on and crank the handle.  The cranks are reading scriptures, saying prayer, keeping the commandments, serving others, etc.  We have to keep it close and use it often for it to get stronger.  It's been one of my favorite Primary moments so far. 

Jeff and I went to ward temple night.  Our ward temple nights are not very well attended so in Ward Council the Bishop asked if we should still continue doing them.  We all agreed that even if it brought only one person to the temple then it was a success. 

Whitney quit gymnastics.  Tuesday she had a huge nervous break down.  We had a very long talk and I discovered that I had been putting too much pressure on her.  The first year was really hard and I thought for sure if she did one more year she would thrive- she knew what to expect, she knew the pressure and the stress she would encounter and she had improved so much as a gymnast that I wanted her to give it one more year to really stretch her wings.  She didn't want to but I kept asking her if she was sure.  I just didn't want her to have any regrets, so she felt like she would be letting us down if she didn't do it.  That was a big lesson for me.  I need to trust my kids that they can make many of life's decisions for themselves.  Also gymnastics is not critical.  It is not something she has to do- it is something that was meant to enhance her life.  Life is full of enough stress from situations that you can't control so we do not need to stay in one that is completely in our control.  She did learn a lot of great things from gymnastics.  She learned first and foremost that she can do hard things.  She learned about hard work, perseverance, loyalty, team work, respect, and that she can have dreams- go for them and if they turn out not to be the way she thought she will know that "all things give us experience".  Now she can try something new.  We also talked about my expectations as a parent and that some times they might be too high- but no matter what I will never stop loving 

and supporting her no matter what she does.

Mom and Liz's house is coming along.

2016! Week 1

I have never had a year pass by quite as quickly for me as 2015.  Seriously where did it go?

Here we are in a new year!  It's been such a whirlwind already that I haven't even had time to think about what I want to accomplish this year.  I love goal setting.  I like plans and maps and tools to help me navigate my life so I love the new year goal setting tradition.  Can't wait to get going.

This week I spent almost the entire week in the car.  Driving kids to and fro.  Running errands for Primary.  Going to meetings.  I hate being in the car.  The highlight of the week was having Malia and Corban come over for a going away dinner.  We are going to miss their little family so so much.  We made him a little cousins coloring book with some pictures that I turned into coloring sheets and we all wrote them goodbye letters.  Hopefully we will be able to get out to Chicago to see them soon!

Friday Whitney had her first gymnastics meet of the year.  It was an intramural practice meet.  Whitney's love of gymnastics is waning.  The passion she had for it is gone and has been replaced by anxiety.  Last year she really struggled with this but I made her push through so that she could learn to do hard things, learn to persevere, learn about commitment to herself and also her team, learn to do her best- even if it will never be as good as someone else's.  I honestly didn't think she would want to compete again this year but I think her love for her team overcame the anxiety she was feeling- that was at least until competition season started.  Then all the pressure and hard work started again and she hates it.  She doesn't have a competitive bone in her body and to be great at sports you have to have that drive.  She also doesn't like being the center of attention, so to be out on the floor in front of the entire meet and being judged on top of that just shuts her down every time.  She is tall and tall and gymnastics do not mix.  All that being said- she wants to quit and I think we are going to let her provided I can get any of my money back.  I have already paid most of the meet fees.  Which is a lot.  When I asked her if she knew that she didn't want to do gymnastics another year why she told me she did she said she thought I wouldn't let her quit.  I don't believe in being a quitter but I feel like she has tried her best and it just isn't for her.  We'll see what happens this week.

 Jeff and I went on a date on Saturday to the Home Show.  The only reason I wanted to go was to see Tiny House Row.  Four tiny homes on display.  I am obsessed with the show Tiny House Nation.  It fascinates me that people can live in 250 square feet.  I am also in love with the idea of living with less, spending less and leaving a smaller footprint.  A tiny home costs around $30K.  That would be so awesome.  It was held at the South Towne Expo Center.  There was also a Bridal Expo going on so parking was non-existent.  There are signs in every establishment and on every street within a mile that state "No Event Parking" so after driving around for thirty minutes we finally found a school down the road without a sign and decided to walk.  We immediately went to Tiny House Row and got in line.  It was a dream come true to see a real tiny home.  It was also an eye opener.  We could not live in one.  I think I could alone- but not with Jeff if we want to stay married and certainly not with kids.  They are darling inside- but you'd have to live with one pot, one glass, one fork, one set of clothes, etc.  Afterward we wandered around the rest of the show.  It was nice.

Here is an example of an area of our life that we will be working on this year.  The kitchen sink is always overloaded with dishes.  The kids are good about doing them if we are home at night but with our busy schedule it ends of looking like this and everyone knows that if your sink is clean your house will be clean.

 I took two days to clean out the fridge and the pantry they had both gotten out of hand with the holidays- I love love order and a clean fridge.

Ethan's science fair project took a turn for the worse.  After replanting the seeds three times, trying a green house, and soaking one of the batches before planting- none of them ever sprouted and a few went moldy.  So next week he will be starting a new project.

2015- Week 52

 I forgot to post about Ethan and Ashtyn's piano recietal- It was a Christmas party for all the students.  These are the songs they played.  We heard a lot of these songs this month.

 Ashtyn had been begging Jeff to take her sledding and he happily obliged.

I love when I find random creativity around the house.

 Ethan has been hard at work on his science fair project.  His question was "Can plants grow if watered by a liquid other than water.

 Whitney and Ethan built a snowman.

 I didn't get a picture but I also got to spend the day before New Year's with my friend Jen.  She just had to have a fifth surgery in her breast cancer journey so I went over to help her.  She is amazing.  She had a coupon for two free meals from the JV Cafe at the hospital and she was not about to let a coupon for free food expire so we went and had lunch.  I'm not even sure I could have gotten out of bed but she has the best attitude and passion for living.  I love hanging out with her.

 Two weeks before New Years I contacted our friend's to see if they wanted to hang out with us for New Year's.  We had done that three years ago and it was so fun.  Well there ended up being a miscommunication and so we found ourselves on New Year's eve with no plans.  I was so sad.  Then I called up my neighbor Melissa and she saved the day.  She had planned to have her parents over and had made too much food so she invited us to dinner and to stay for games.  Our other neighbor Leslie joined us for games to and it ended up being the best night.

 I could barely stay awake until midnight but these kids were going strong.

 The next day was the Pearson Bowling Extravaganza.

 Our numbers this year were slim- but we had a blast hanging out with Uncle Drew's family.  We love this tradition- well I should say me and the kids love it.  Jeff hates bowling, but he loves seeing this side of the family and I told him that as long as his grandpa was still alive who started the tradition we were not giving it up. Traditions are what hold families together.  They connect generations.  They build unity and memories that will last a lifetime.

 Nana and Papa Face timed while we were there too.

After bowling we had a scrumptious breakfast at Drew's house.  

It was a great way to start the New Year!